Barton Marina

A couple of weeks ago, Dad and I visited Barton Marina in Staffordshire.

The Marina has berths for over 300 boats, mostly privately owned, but including some for hire.

The opening under the footbridge is the access to the Trent and Mersey canal.

This boat was moored alongside the walkway and offered a rather unusual activity...

Craft painting sessions - pots and T shirts.

Also along the walkway are shops and attractions including eating places, a pub, boutiques and this shop selling traditional toys - fun to look around, but a little too over-priced to tempt me to buy.

Personally, I just love looking at the boats!

Any excuse to snap a canal!

We were out in the car, meandering our way home from lunch, when Dad had to stop to make a phone call. The lay-by he pulled into was right next to the canal bridge.

"Back in a sec..."

I like canals :)

I wanna be a crane driver!

Yesterday, I told you about my 'adventure' with the closed road. The bridge being repaired was for the railway, but right next door is the canal. Such a peaceful scene...

...maybe that's what sent him to sleep!

I wanna be a crane driver!!

Sunset

This gorgeous sunset was an unexpected treat at the end of a very short stroll. Good to have a stretch and lovely to be rewarded with this!

Sometimes, even pylons and cables can be made attractive by nature. (Just sometimes!)

Evening moorings

I love the tranquility of this scene...

with the stove smoke drifting languidly across the stillness of the water; a single V cut by a paddling coot.

Lock down

Did you notice the boats waiting by the left bank?

Room for two! Going down!

Looking the other way now; in their direction of travel.

I've often wondered how it must feel to sink down into the narrow lock chamber.

Notice the white house on the left. Once, it was the lock keepers cottage, then empty for years, now a cafe.

These are the lower gates. Believe it or not, they are pretty new, having only been replaced in February 2002. The previous replacement was 1990 and before that, 1947. As the gates rot, leakage becomes an increasing problem, until the amount of water escaping is too great to be ignored. 

Remember that I said the top gates are lightweight at 950kg? These guys are a hefty 2 920kg! (even without the foliage)

The boats aren't quite at full depth yet...

...but I'm going to nip down to beyond the narrow road bridge in time to watch the gates opening.

I imagine it would be quite a relief to see the first chick of light and know that escape from the narrow confines of the lock was imminent!

You get a more accurate sense of the depth of the lock here.

And away!

Lock up

First the pub meal, then the after dinner entertainment.

Apparently, at 12' 2" (3.7m), the Stenson Bubble (as the lock is named - you can see why) is one of the deepest locks on the inland waterway system. Stenson is the last of six wide locks on the Trent and Mersey, being 14' (4.2m) wide and 72 feet (21.9m) long, big enough to accomodate two boats at once. Narrow locks are half the width.

There are two boats in here at the moment, even though only one nosed into the picture.

So... time to sit back and enjoy the whole process of passing up through the locks... (You'll have to imagine the sound effects)

Already about a third filled here.

The paddles on the upper gate open to allow the water to fill the central section of the lock. (You can see the upper paddles, but there is also a pair of sluice gates below normal water level.) The lip over which the water is gushing is called the cill and makes a buffer for the upper gates, creating a watertight seal. There is a cill on the lower gates too, but you can't usually see it because it is around four feet underwater.

Almost level. In the photo below, you can see the rack and pinion rod for raising and lowering the paddles. They are worked with a windless or 'lock key' which looks a bit like a large right angled spanner and is carried on board by the boater. (You can see one being used in the very top photo)

Once level, the gates are pushed open. The top gates are easy to move, weighing a mere 950kg each.

Once fully opened, the boats can leave. (If you look carefully, you can spot both boats here)

Above the lock

There was quite a collection of boats near the Bubble Inn above the lock. I remember the days when we would play around here and only see a couple of boats all day. Nowadays, there is a marina, a cafe, the Inn itself; the whole area is a hive of activity.

The marina was developed in 1974 from the narrowboat lay-by at the top of the lock. This was expanded to provide moorings for about a hundred boats. For a while, it was a going concern, but by the mid 1980s most of the hire fleets had pulled out of the area and the marina was losing money.

In 1986, a new owner took over and the focus changed. Stenson became a centre for building and servicing narrowboats, becoming one of the foremost inland boatbuilders in the country, offering both production and bespoke boats as well as doing refitting and steelwork repairs. The marina continues, but the number of berths has been reduced to accomodate around 80 larger boats and facilities have been updated so that all of the expected services are now provided.

The boat in the foreground is the Stenson Belle, a pleasure cruise boat which offers 45 minute trips down the canal towards the village of Willington. Also available at the marina is a private hire boat called Sunray which can booked for day cruises as far as Horninglow Basin near Burton on Trent, just over the county boundary into Staffordshire.

I've never been on a narrowboat. Friends who have, tell me what an enjoyable experience it is; peaceful and slow. Sounds good. :)

Belonging

In sharp contrast to the cultivated clematis of yesterday, these plants are self established on the inside wall of one of the stone canal bridges.

Mosses and lichens are a common sight on dry stone walls in Derbyshire, adding softness and a splash of colour to the pale grey limestone. I remember sitting on the dry stone wall at the front of my aunt's house and feeling the softness of moss under my fingers. It was a good place to perch and watch the world go by and back then, when the village was made up of long established families, most everyone who walked past knew who I was. Even those who didn't actually know my name would have been able to reel off my ancestory; parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins (from direct through to several times removed), place of residence and for how long and occupational status of each and every one. Undoubtedly, there could also have been a few stories thrown in; memories of "When your mum was a little girl..."

All changed now of course! Most of my generation couldn't afford to live in the village and the building of new housing is strictly governed by the Peak Park Planning Board. My mum and dad moved into Derby before I was born and many of the old families are gone. Nowadays, a lot of the residences are second homes and/or holiday cottages. Which isn't to say that the village isn't a thriving, vibrant community. It is. It's just different.

But, back to the bridge! (You remember the bridge? It's up there, where I started before my brain shifted into rambling mode.) What really caught my eye was the fern. It has found its own little niche to grow in; a crack in the wall where two stones meet and just enough earth has collected. It isn't a cultivated beauty, and it will never reach the size or lushness of one of its woodland cousins with much more growing fodder available but, for now, it has its own special beauty in its own particular place where it belongs.

Clematis

We spotted this beautiful clematis growing up the gable end of a house beside the towpath just outside Willington. The blooms were huge and I love the intricate layering of the petals.

I tried to look up the actual species of clematis, but couldn't find one which looked quite right. Did you know that there are over three hundred different species of clematis and that the plant is part of the buttercup family; Ranunculaceae? That is as unexpected as discovering that woodlice are related to prawns.

I suppose that clematis are the climbers of the buttercup family; the name clematis comes from the Ancient Greek klématis, meaning a climbing plant!

Aren't families interesting. The most unexpected members can belong together and every one has their own special place. If only all human families could amble along so amiably.

PS: Thankyou to Catherine (A Gardener in Progress) for identifying this clematis as a Multi Blue :)

Yellow flag iris

At various points along the banks of the canal, there were flowers. Some, like the cow parsley, were obviously wild, but I suspect that others had been introduced deliberately.

These, I am almost sure, are yellow flag irises. Mum was a keen gardener and one of the plants I remember in our garden was the blue flag iris. These look just the same (except for being yellow of course).

The Latin name is pseudacorus and they are, supposedly, easy to grow. They prefer moist or boggy ground in full sun or partial shade and can reach heights of up to 120cm. I think I prefer the blue to the yellow, but they have a beautiful shaped flower with  large droopy petals, and looked glorious standing tall and bright between the towpath and the water.

By the way, if any American readers stop by today...

Happy Independence Day!

Evening by the water

The sun was gradually sinking towards the horizon, silhouetting the trees and creating near perfect reflections in the still water of the canal...

and the cows were wandering down for a bedtime drink.

Back on the Trent and Mersey

Having walked down the Trent and Mersey with Lisa a short while ago, we had a homegroup walk one evening soon after and set off down the canal again. This time, we began from the new and ever growing Mercia Marina, which was the subject of one of my very first posts, and walked through the village of Willington.

Having been a damp and drizzly day, it turned into a glorious evening, perfect for a stroll. From the marina, a short branch heads out under the tunnel

and joins the main canal at a T junction.

But, as the towpath was on the far bank and we are none of us able to walk on water, we had to go the slightly longer route...

...over the footbridge.

Cow parsley

There are lots of wildflowers about along the edge of the Trent and Mersey canal, adding splashes of colour and subtle fragrances. Some of them I knew the names for; others, I needed to be told by my far more knowledgable friend. I certainly recognised bullrushes, bright yellow buttercups, clear blue forget-me-nots and the pale purple clover. There was also a lot of white. Some of it was the may blossom of the hawthorn and blackthorn trees, which are showing beautifully at the moment. The rest was cow parsley.

Cow parsley is a wildflower which I love because of the connections it has with my childhood. When I was growing up, the busy road where my dad still lives, was little more than a quiet country lane. There were no houses opposite, only fields with hedgerows and all along the hedgerow was cow parsley. It was prolific and bloomed vigorously every year. For quite a few weeks, the whole roadside would be a show of white, gradually turning to seed which scattered ready for the following spring.

About four years ago, I collected some seeds from a patch of cow parsley and scattered them in the longer grass towards the bottom of my garden. The first year, I only had a couple of plants, but each year they have increased in number, until now, I have quite a show brightening up the shady place under the pear tree.